Look: Dubai-based Filipino travel photographer captures the life of the people of Kalash Valley, Pakistan-Afghanistan border

Donell Gumiran shares pictures of the Kalash people who live a traditional, rural life

Last updated:
Manuel Almario, Senior News Editor
2 MIN READ
1/19
Before going to the Kalash Valleys in May 2018, I spent some amazing days in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
2/19
The Kalasha Valleys are valleys in Chitral District in northern Pakistan. The valleys are surrounded by the Hindu Kush mountain range.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
3/19
Due to its remoteness, the Kalash people live a traditional, rural life, which still remains pretty untouched.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
4/19
Most families rely on the sun to have electricity, don’t have running water, are self-sufficient and live in wooden shacks.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
5/19
I saw a huge contrast between the Pashtun Muslim women and the women of the Kalash valley.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
6/19
To be honest, life is quite hard there as they have very long, freezing winters and, unlike people from other parts of Pakistan, during winters, they don’t move to the cities, but they remain in the valley.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
7/19
Wearing these heavy dresses is a long-standing tradition they continue to follow.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
8/19
Bordering Afghanistan, the Kalash Valleys are located in the northwest of Pakistan, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in Chitral District.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
9/19
Pakistan’s remote northwestern hills, along the border with Afghanistan, is a cluster of three villages whose residents are still trying to preserve their language and culture in the face of advancing modernity and religious conversion.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
10/19
The tribe, known as Kalash, is said to have descended from soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great who travelled this way in 324 BCE.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
11/19
However, many scholars deny the story even though it has not been established finally yet how these people, their language, dress, and their nature-worshipping culture—in marked contrast to the Islamic culture that surrounds them — evolved and survived through the centuries.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
12/19
For centuries, the Kalash people lived in a remote mountainous region, which now spreads contiguously across Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
13/19
However, Kalash people who lived in the region now under Chitral district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan carried on the legacy.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
14/19
Today, they form the smallest of Pakistan’s minority ethnic groups (numbering between 3,000 and 4,000 people) and can be found in three valleys: Bumburet, Rumbur, and Birir.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
15/19
The Kalash language is said to be part of the Dardic group of Indo-Aryan languages.
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
16/19
People of Kalash Valley Pakistan-Afghanistan border
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
17/19
People of Kalash Valley Pakistan-Afghanistan border
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
18/19
People of Kalash Valley Pakistan-Afghanistan border
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader
19/19
People of Kalash Valley Pakistan-Afghanistan border
Donell Gumiran (Instagram: donell_gumiran_photography)/Gulf News reader

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